30/06/2026 15:30 - 16:30

HALL: Pola - A206b

Contact: Rivera J.

Chair: Rivera J.

The contemporary landscape of inequality, which is marked by polarization, alienation, and conflict, can be understood as a liminal space increasingly governed by a therapeutic logic. This panel introduces the concept of a therapeutic liminal space to examine how modern societies seek to reconcile or reintegrate inequality through frameworks of identity, recognition, and validation. Drawing on philosophy, theology, and social theory, the panel explores how demands for recognition function both as a source of dignity and as a catalyst for rivalry, resentment, and division.


Francis Fukuyama's Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment (2019) provides a key point of departure, framing recognition as a "master concept" that reveals both a fundamental anthropological capacity and a latent source of conflict. If recognition is itself a form of power, does it facilitate or hinder constructive dialogue in contexts of inequality, alienation, and political polarization? How might identity be reconfigured to sustain mutual recognition within therapeutic and dialogical settings, rather than reinforcing competitive or exclusionary dynamics?


The panel also examines the technological and institutional conditions under which certain identities and worldviews are rendered visible and validated, while others are marginalized or suppressed. Finally, it asks whether the pursuit of full equality reshapes the ethical burdens, obligations, and possibilities of dialogue under persistent conditions of inequality. The discussion engages thinkers including Hans Blumenberg, Michel Foucault, René Girard, Edmund Husserl, Jürgen Habermas, Søren Kierkegaard, Catherine Cornille, Francis Fukuyama, Charles Taylor, and Martin Heidegger.